Carnahan, John C.

CARNAHAN, WOLFF, SCULLEN

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 4/15/2003 at 18:43:40

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

JOHN C. CARNAHAN.

John C. Carnahan, one of the representative farmers of Eden township, was born on the 26th of August, 1846, in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, of which state his parents, Charles S. and Elizabeth (Wolff) Carnahan, were also natives. He is the eighty in order of birth in their family of thirteen children, eight of whom are still living. Throughout life the father followed farming. In 1849 he removed to Illinois and located in Lee county, where he operated a farm until his death, which occurred in 1874, when he was seventy-four years of age. His wife died in 1884, at the age of seventy-four.

Our subject was only three years old when he accompanies his parents on their removal to Illinois, and he received his education in the common schools of Lee county. He remained at home assisting his father until eighteen years of age, when he joined the boys in blue of Company M, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, and was in active service on the frontier, being under the command of General McNeal in Missouri during Price’s invasion in 1864. The war having ended and his services being no longer needed, he was honorably discharged at Springfield, Illinois, November 6, 1865.

Mr. Carnahan returned to his home in that state, and was there married, in 1878, to Miss Sarah A. Scullen, a native of Illinois. Her father, William Scullen, also fought in the Union army during the Civil war, and is now a resident of Camanche, Iowa. Our subject and his wife have nine children: Reuben, LeRoy, Nellie, Rolland, John, Charles, Harry, Arvine and Marie, all at home.

In 1879 Mr. Carnahan came to Clinton county, Iowa, and settled in Eden township, where he engaged in farming on rented land. Now he owns and operates a threshing machine, steam wood cutter and corn sheller, and meets with success in that enterprise. He has held the offices of township assessor and constable, and is as true to his country in times of peace as when he followed the old flag to victory on southern battlefields. Socially he is a member of Low Moor Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Camanche Lodge, F. & A. M.